Can I Use A Tankless Water Heater For Hydronic Heating

I recently spoke with a rinnai engineer about this noting that rinnai also sells combi boilers for space heat and dhw.

Can i use a tankless water heater for hydronic heating.

It seams they know something about it. However that wasn t the question. If you don t want to use a boiler you may be able to use a tank style water heater but only in some jurisdictions since using a water heater as a boiler may be a code violation. And i would never recommend the use of a tankless water heater for a hydronic space heating system.

Can you use a hot water tank for infloor hydronic heating or hot water radiators. Total cost for my system was around 5 000 not including labor. That said it is a cheap btu. Tankless heater allowed per code we are allowed to use a tankless heater in this application per our building code.

However it is important to understand that not all of them are suitable for this task. Matter of fact quite a few plumbing companies install them either hydronic only or combo units using a heat exchanger. The economics of using a tankless water heater to supply both dhw and heating are also quite attractive. If you use a tankless as a boiler the warranty will drop drastically from about 10 years on the heat exchanger to 3.

Water heater for radiant heat water heaters are good for radiant floor heating because they maintain a low temperature. You really only need a maximum of 120 f for your floor. A well designed hydronic heating system can be very economical in terms of energy use. Click here to download free schematic plans and to watch a video on how to make it happen.

Make sure you invest in a high efficiency tankless water heater. Designed as whole house alternatives to traditional tank type water heaters or for use as supplements to renewable energy systems including solar and geothermal. What you can t do is use a tankless water heater in a closed loop application. They function similar to the muchkins and copper fin boilers you might be able to pay for two tankless v s one 90 boiler of the same btu rating.

This is especially true when a high efficiency tankless water heater is used as the main hot water source. 1 100 for the tankless heater 1 400 for the pex tubing and 2 400 for the various components controls and fittings. Tankless water heater can be used to produce radiant heating. He said their hydronic air handlers are designed to work with their water heaters.